Eggshell Green

If you have lemons

Make lemon spritz cookies

We did a bit of surfing and decided to try a recipe that seemed to be popular on many websites. I can’t remember which one we tried but I remember it called for a stick of butter and one egg as the only liquid fat. It was way too dry and we had to hunt down a fix for it. The cookies didn’t turn out so bad in the end, but I’ll use a different recipe next time.

Lemon spritz cookies

Make a lemon meringue pie

MMmm! I used the Edmonds recipe. I won’t publish their recipe in case of copyright issues, but a quick Google will help you out :) Serve with ice cream and fruit.

Lemon meringue pie for desert

Make preserved lemons

Preserved lemons are great. They have a unique flavour that many Middle Eastern recipes ask for. They’re pretty easy to do too.

Preserving lemons

I make mine by washing the lemons, chopping off the green stem, making a deep criss-cross in each, packing them with uniodised salt, and covering with boiling water. I’d recommend adding about an extra half cup of salt into the jar before filling.

Leave them for several weeks, turning the jar a few times over the first few days.

What to do with preserved lemons?

I love making chicken targine with preserved lemons. I’ll post my own easy recipe soon.

They’re also great in couscous. You can also make a yummy couscous to accompany a main fish or lamb dish. Prepare instant couscous with chopped preserved lemon rind and taco seasoning mix, and stir in chopped parsley at the end. I usually make a caper butter for my salmon. After taking the fish out of the pan, add about a tablespoon of butter and a couple splashes of balsamic vinegar and let it bubble down a little. Add chopped capers and pour onto  your fish.

Salmon with caper butter and lemon couscous

Couscous can be a great vegetarian main. Try a spiced roast vegetable couscous by adding prepared instant couscous to roast vegies (such as asparagus, pumpkin, carrot, kumara, garlic, swede, yam, parsnip) and flavour with some ground cumin, coriander, chopped parsley and preserved lemon. Season to taste. Also, if you don’t have preserved lemon, just chuck in some lemon wedges while roasting the vegetables so you get some lemon infusion happening.

Make cocktails

This is a no brainer! Cocktails always taste better with fresh lemons rather than bottled juice. And they look prettier when there are lemon wedges muddled in the glass. See my list of cocktails for ideas. I’m going to have to wait until after the baby to have proper cocktails again – can’t wait!

My Lychee Likey cocktail

Tags: baking, cookie, cooking, deserts, lemons

Cupcakes!

I love baking cupcakes, and realised that I don’t actually have many photos of them online.
So here are some now :)

Vanilla cupcakes with lemon icing

Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate flakes

Bright vanilla cupcakes with strawberry and apple flavoured icing

Vanilla cupcakes I made for my hen's tea party with Malibu, Cointreau and Kahlua icing

A selection of cucpakes for Ms Constantine's birthday

Blue Obama cupcakes (not the obscene version)

Well, we’re not American, but Obama’s presidency gave me an excuse to be silly with cupcakes. If you want to know what I mean, see my post on Cocktails and Obama Cakes.

Dark chocolate cupcake with lemon icing

Trial cupcakes for the brother-in-law's wedding

The 72 cupcakes we made for the brother-in-law's wedding. Flavours were chocolate, vanilla boysenberry and lemon, with vanilla or lemon icing.

Dark chocolate black forest cupcakes with fresh brandy cream

All my cupcakes are variations of the basic Scout’s Cupcakes recipe (see my Tea Party Essentials post) – the most simple, fail proof recipe for light, fluffy cupcakes.

Tags: baking, cupcake

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I haven’t posted a food entry for a while. This is probably due to the fact that most of my food entries have been cocktail recipes, and being winter and pregnant I haven’t thought about any of these lately. (Actually, I think about cocktails a lot! Will have to invent some nonalcoholic ones at some stage.)

But what is good for a pregnant woman in winter is some warm chocolate chip cookies.

I dug out this recipe that is based on one I found on the Interwebs a while ago, and tweaked it to my liking.

Method

Preheat oven to 180° Celcius.

In a large bowl cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy then stir in the egg.

Sift in the flour and baking powder and mix with a wooden spoon.

Use a sift or sieve to get rid of lumps in the flour

When it comes together as a dry dough mixture, add the chocolate.

Add chopped chocolate to dough mixture

Use your hands to knead the mixture so it forms a ball of cookie dough.

Use hands to form dough ball

Drop slightly-flattened balls of the cookie dough onto a tray. I do two batches one after the other for even cooking.

Arrange 12 cookies per sheet

Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown on the edges.

Cool a little and voila! Teeth-rotting tummy-fattening wickedness.

Brown on the edges and chewy in the middle

Tags: baking, cookie

Black Forest Cupcakes

If you’re looking for something to bring to a Christmas lunch or dinner, here’s an idea.

I had been wanting to make black forest cupcakes for months but hadn’t gotten around to it – mainly because they have fresh cream instead of icing so it was best to wait until there was an occasion where the whole lot would be eaten in one day.

Finally I decided that our last barbecue of the year would be a great time to test these out.

Black Forest cupcakes

I based the recipe on my favourite for Scouts Cupcakes and made a few alterations. They turned out great and I will definitely make them again soon :)

Update 30 August 2009:
I’ve adjusted the flour and cocoa ratios to eliminate the need for two types of cocoa, and yet still get a rich but fluffy cupcake. The extra 1/4 cup of dry cocoa makes up for the juices in the cherries. Also, use cherry liquer in the cream if you have it.

Black Forest Cupcakes

• Break 2 eggs into a cup measure and fill to the top with fresh whipping cream.
• Pour into a large mixing bowl and beat on high with electric mixers for 1 minute.
• Add 1/4 teaspon of vanilla essence and 3/4 cup caster sugar.
• Beat for another 3 minutes.
• Stir through 1/2 cup of Morello cherries (you get these tinned or in a jar). Cut them up roughly first.
• Sift in 1 cup of standard flour plus 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt.
• Sift in 1/4 cup Dutch cocoa.
• Fold to combine taking care not to over mix.
• Spoon into 12 cupcake cases.
  Usually I end up with a couple extra – if you are making a double batch, you can get 30 cupcakes.
• Bake for about 12-15 minutes at 180 degrees Celcius until a skewer comes out clean.
• Remove from tins (they can be quite fragile for a few minutes after baking) and cool on wire racks.
• Whip some fresh cream with a dash of cherry liquer or brandy and pipe onto cupcakes.
• Decorate as you please.
  I used real chocolate hail, red sprinkles, and white chocolate drops. Maraschino cherries or shaved chocolate on top woud be good too.

Tags: baking, black forest cupcake, chocolate, cupcake, recipe

Tea Party Essentials

Tea Party Essentials

Eeee! Look at all my pretty things. Not just good to look at, but will be most useful at every tea party.

From top right going clockwise:

1. Cupcakes! The recipe I swear by is one for “Scout’s Cupcakes”. It’s a gorgeous recipe that’s so simple and makes really fluffy cupcakes – the best I’ve found. I make them chocolate sometimes.
   The orginal recipe is available from Taste.com.au but here is my version modified with some clarifications and suggestions:
   Scout Cupcakes
   • Break 2 eggs into a cup measure and fill to the top with fresh cream. (In New Zealand we only have one type of cream but overseas make sure you buy the thick stuff that can be whipped.)
   • Pour into a large mixing bowl and beat on high with electric mixers for 1 minute.
   • Add 1/4 teaspon of vanilla essence and 3/4 cup caster sugar.
   • Beat for another 3 minutes.
   • Sift in 1 cup of self raising flour (I normally use standard flour plus 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt).
   • Fold to combine taking care not to over mix.
   • Spoon into 12 cupcake cases (or more if you have extra batter) and bake for about 12-15 minutes at 180 degrees celcius until golden and springy to the touch.
   • Remove from tins straight after baking and cool on wire racks before icing.
2. 3-tier cake stand to display all your goodies. This was a score from Ikea in London. I hadn’t been able to find any decent ones at home and any that I did find were hideous or really expensive. This is eagerly awaiting use!
3. Pretty teacups and plates. I fell in love with these when I saw them at Farmers – they were footed, red and with polka dots! And they remind me of Alice in Wonderland. I haven’t yet used these either because I only bought them a few days ago.
4. Sprinkles, and lots of them.
5. A large teapot so all your guests can fill up.
6. A simple, elegant and sturdy cakestand (it’s underneath the teapot in the picture) to display more cupcakes, or maybe a mega cupcake…
7. The middle picture is actually an ice cream bowl, but it has cupcakes painted on it and so pretty that it can’t be left out at a tea party. I see it more as a lolly dish, maybe to put some decandent truffles into?
8. Under the ice cream bowl/lolly dish is a Lazy Susan. I purchased this with cake decorating in mind. This was another bargain from Ikea as cake turntables aren’t so cheap here in New Zealand.

I can’t wait for my next tea party where all these pretty powers can combine!

Tags: baking, cake, cupcake, recipe, scout's cupcakes, scouts cupcake